Shakespeare's The Tempest

A Jungian Interpretation

by Barry Beck

Shakespeare's Tempest lends itself to many different
levels of meaning and interpretation. The play can be seen on a realistic
plane as a tale of political power and social responsibility. It can
be seen as allegory examining the growth of the human spirit. The
Tempest investigates marriage, love, culture. It is
symbolic of
man's rational higher instincts verses his animal natural tendencies. This
is a play of repentance, power, revenge and fate that can also be seen
as fantasy, dream, imagination, metaphor or magic.

The Tempest should be allowed to represent many points
of view,
even those that the author was not consciously or unconsciously aware
when he wrote it. One outlook does not invalidate the others. I propose
to illustrate The Tempest as a play about what is occurring
in the protagonist's mind. To be more specific, it is the growth,
maturing and individuation of Prospero. Shakespeare, in a sense
of which he could not be conscious, was anticipating Freud and Jung. His
servants, Ariel and Caliban, are the agents of synchronicity. By
synchronicity, I mean meaningful coincidence; an acausal principle
relating inner mind to the external world; a vehicle whereby the ego,
if it is open, can glimpse the Self. In Jung's terms, it is strongest
when an emotional attachment exists and when there is an element of risk
or death. When the subject is ready to learn, the unconscious mind can
affect physical reality. By individuation, I mean, "becoming
a single homogenous being …. Becoming one's own self …. Coming into
selfhood." 1

To begin showing how this process takes place in Prospero, I would like
to take issue with some traditional views of the character. Many critics
see Prospero as completely in control of everything that takes place on
his island. He is seen as all-knowing, having a perfect plan in place,
often seen as calm, as good, as the main force of reason and logic
and Man's highest qualities. I do not dispute all of this. Prospero
is an amazingly talented, wise, mature man in control of himself
and his environment, but he is not perfect. This is a play showing
growth and education in its characters, but most of all, the growth and
education of Prospero himself. At the outset, he is a man in struggle,
an embittered man, a vengeful tyrannical man; not God, unless it is
the cruel anthropomorphic God of the early Old Testament. He is not
in total control. His plan might not work; it's dependent on timing:
'The time twixt six and now must by us be spent most preciously.'
He is not a man of perfect judgment. He has lost his position of
political authority by failing to attend to his duties. Now he has this
one chance to revise that mistake or it will never be corrected. This
chance comes not entirely through Prospero but, 'by accident most
strange' and 'a most auspicious star.'

Let's look at the tempest, the island and Prospero's agents of
effecting the changes on the island. Water symbolizes the spirit. The
tempest is a disarrangement of that spirit. It is Prospero's wrath,
his temper, anger. The island represents an enchanted locality where
things do not work by the normal rules of time, space and physical action
and reaction. It depicts the new unknown 'undiscovered country';
lands of Shakespeare's time. The rules of the known world may or may
not apply.

Prospero's agents of control: Ariel, of the air, the intelligent;
Ariel is consciously directed; he is civilized and ordered. Time and space
are not obstacles for him, but he is the rational and logical means by
which Prospero effects changes in the outer world. When Ariel causes the
tempest, becomes the tempest, he's Prospero's conscious vengeance;
his upset and his anger. Prospero seems to be calm, but his intentions
are not causing calm.

Caliban, the cannibal represents Man's basest primitive instincts
and his physical sensations. Caliban is forever causing upset and acting
rebellious and uncontrollable, but playful and creative. Caliban does not
obey Prospero's will. If Prospero is omniscient, omnipotent and entirely
in control on the island, how could Caliban exist as he does? (As Jung
and most of us have wondered: How can evil exist if God is all-powerful
and good? You'll be relieved to know I won't try to answer that in this
paper, but) I propose a somewhat controversial answer as to why Caliban
can cause so much mischief and rebellion and danger in Prospero's
perfectly controlled environment. He is Prospero's id. He is
part of Prospero. Prospero has taken possession of him, but he takes no
responsibility for Caliban's actions. Caliban is Prospero's unconscious
control of the island. His unconscious synchronistic control
of the outer world affects (and effects) synchronistic change as does
Ariel's conscious control.

We all need an Ariel and
Caliban inside our Psyche. "Caliban …. is a sort of creature
of the earth, as Ariel is a sort of creature of the air. He partakes
in the qualities of the brute …. Still Caliban is in some respects
a noble being …. He is a man in the sense of imagination: all the
images he uses are drawn from nature and are highly poetical."
2 His 'Be not afeard' speech
in Act III reveals him to be poetic, sensual, in tune with nature and
naturally creative. He is also the physical strength of the island. We and
Prospero need those creative, imaginative, brutish qualities as well as
our intellectual, social, logical, conscious, ordered aspects. However,
Prospero has denied responsibility for Caliban. Prospero does not know
he has an unconscious, potentially barbaric side. And when that side
goes ignored and unacknowledged, it can become ever more dangerous and
unruly and affect a person's outer world (synchronistically) and return
to haunt him in ever more unexpected and dangerous ways. Caliban is the
shadow of the island and of Prospero's mind. "Dr. Jung has
pointed out that the shadow cast by the conscious mind of the individual
contains the hidden, repressed and unfavorable (or nefarious) aspects
of the personality …. The shadow has good qualities - normal instincts
and creative impulses. Ego and shadow, indeed although separate, are
inextricably linked together in much the same way that thought and feeling
are related to each other." 3 Jung
further states in Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious,
"The shadow personifies everything the subject refuses to acknowledge
about himself and yet is always thrusting itself upon him directly
or indirectly." In other words, any part of ourselves that we
do not accept unconditionally, splits off and becomes more and more
primitive and can be projected outward. The Self must integrate
or individuate the abyss, the horror, the unpleasantness in order
to be complete. If this balancing does not transpire, negative attributes
will seem to attack from the outside. Projection will occur. So as
with synchronicity: External events take place in space and time which
are representations of the thoughts and feelings of Prospero. Some are
conscious (Ariel). Some are unconscious (Caliban). The unconscious deals
as easily in fantasy as in reality, just as on Prospero's island. It
is his dream, his imagery, his psyche working on some serious conflicts
and failures for which he blames others.

In Prospero's perfect ordered world, why are anarchy, conspiracy and
rebellion so prevalent? Why is there a constant struggle to keep disorder
at bay and murder from occurring? Caliban, Antonio, Trinculo, Stephano
and Sebastian are all permitted to busily plot murder and betrayal. Only
late in the play does Prospero seem to remember or become aware that
mischief is proceeding too far. Why is the all-knowing protagonist so
unaware of what is taking place in his world? This is often explained as
dramatic effect or theatrical device, but I think Prospero
can only deal with a problem when he is aware of it and he is not always
cognizant of what is happening on his island: 'I had forgot that
foul conspiracy of that beast Caliban.'

And what of one of the more denied, repressed, unmentionable taboos
today and throughout human history, only safely dealt with through
myth and symbol? Incest; the molestation and rape of one's own
daughter. Miranda has reached womanhood with herself and her father as
the only two humans in their world. 'In mine own cell till thou didst
seek to violate the honor of my child.' Prospero has controlled
and stopped this impulse in time, but again the dark side was possibly
expressed through Caliban with Prospero trying to bury him even deeper
in a cave.

Speaking of Miranda and Ferdinand and the other human visitors
on the island, I think it is significant that they are drawn so
thinly as characters while Caliban and Ariel (other than Prospero
himself) are the most richly drawn out. Within our psyches, our
Ariels and Calibans are only symbolic representations
or archetypes. Yet on this island of imagination, we are inside
Prospero's mind. Ariel, Caliban and other assorted goddesses, nymphs,
fairies and spirits are the real ones and the human beings are thinly
drawn cardboard cut-outs; mere portraitures of types. Inside Prospero's
mind, the human beings are the archetypes. Ferdinand is 'hero', but
such an obvious characature. Miranda is 'wise and innocent child',
but a little too innocent for reality. Indeed, she does not even seem
to function or exist when she is out of sight and mind of Prospero. He
simply puts her to sleep. How convenient. There is growth and education
taking place as part of some of the human beings' development,
but not as deep and unscripted as the growth and education of Prospero
himself. (By the way, another archetype: Trinculo the jester is, what
else? 'jester', though it might be argued he lacks the wisdom
in folly.)

As for Prospero's growth and education, his individuation, on the
surface he has learned to become a more responsible ruler, and has learned
to forgive his enemies, but two more significant things have happened
to him. First, he has delved into and accepted all parts of himself. A
very important line which Prospero speaks near the end of the play is,
'These three have robbed me, and this demi-devil (for he's a bastard
one) had plotted with him to take my life. Two of these fellows you
must know and own; this thing of darkness I acknowledge mine.'
Prospero is saying Trinculo and Stephano are the responsibility
of Alonzo's court, but more importantly, Prospero is finally fully
owning, acknowledging and taking responsibility for Caliban, his shadow,
his unconscious. In his growth and individuation, he has taken a
big step toward integrating his shadow within himself.

The second deeper indication of growth within Prospero is his
completion of the entire process; his willingness to give up his magic
and the world of imagination and his return to the real world as a
mortal human being. In one of his final speeches, he says, 'Our revels
now are ended. These our actors, as I fortold you, were all spirits and
are melted into air, into thin air …. We are such stuff as dreams are made
on ….' In a sense, he is coming out of his head and returning to the
outside world. He's giving up his ideal utopia where he could define the
rules and he will now rule others (and himself) as a mature human being.

In his concluding speech, he declares, 'Now my charms are
all o'erthrown, And what strength I have's my own …. Let your
indulgence set me free.' He is releasing Ariel and the spirits;
he is leaving Caliban alone with the island. He no longer needs the
imaginary representations. He has taken all the necessary archetypes and
integrated them within himself. We have seen the unconscious played out
as fantasy and then a return to reality. The island was a place
of transformation, reconciliation, education, regeneration and repentance.

Prospero has not only learned how to rule and forgive. He's learned
to live with others and to know, recognize and accept himself. He's
reconciled his two halves. He's overcome his impulse to destroy and
to punish. He's learned mercy and to do without revenge. He no longer
has to be a tyrant or force others to his will. He's won the struggle
with himself. His human and virtuous impulses won out over his animal
and pernicious urges once all the parts were known and accepted.
'The rarer action is in virtue than in vengeance.'

Now Prospero is still not a perfect man and the world is not a utopia
in a golden age as Gonzalo idealized in Act II, scene 1. Caliban and
Antonio had to be forced into submission. Anarchy has to be kept at
bay. Though there was clear growth for Ferdinand, Miranda, Alonso, Ariel,
Gonzalo and Prospero, there was only grudging repentance from Trinculo,
Stephano, Sebastian and Caliban. There was silence from Antonio. Even
Prospero was cruel in forgiveness, 'For you most wicked sir, whom to
call brother would even infect my mouth, I do forgive ….' Trouble
can still reappear. Prospero, if not careful, might have to take another
trip to the island.

However, the conscious higher representations of social order
and behavior: fair political rule, fidelity in marriage, chastity,
intellect, honesty and conformity have won the day. These things to
which we aspire may not always completely succeed anymore than we can
return to a golden age or a utopia. Every gain is a loss. Logic, reason
and conscious good may triumph, but we may lose a little of Caliban's
natural creative nobility.